


Boom Crack the Sound of my Heart

by brunchywrites



Category: DCU
Genre: Batlantern - Freeform, Bruce can be Kind, Hal gets a head full of staples, Hal is an idiot, He is kind, Hospitals, M/M, What's new, bruce/hal - Freeform, getting those relationship tags in, just guys being dudes, oh right tags, they're gonna be something of a couple by chapter two i promise, they're sort of already a thing if you catch my drift, well i dont' promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 02:04:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18326465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brunchywrites/pseuds/brunchywrites
Summary: You see the problem with being in space most of the time was that you had no idea what the fuck was going on in your home planet.Politics? Hal knew at the very least that it wasn’t George Bush in office.Everything else? Yeah, he honestly didn’t have a damn clue. Time worked weirdly in outer space, and he could talk about other planets’ culture all day long but if you asked him to sing one of the currently charting songs on Earth? He wouldn’t know anything past Britney Spears.





	1. Fucking Earth Am I Right?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay hi it's brunchy back at it again. I'm finally dipping my toes into BatLantern because I've been interested in their dynamic since JL: War. This fic does have a split skull so if you're squeamish.. y'know. 
> 
> There's gonna be another chapter after this and then a few other pieces involving the same universe this is set in.Aka the Universe where Brunchy does what she wants!!!! 
> 
> follow me on tumblr @brunchyarts.tumblr.com
> 
> OH AND I ACTUALLY EDITED THIS LOLLL

You see the problem with being in space most of the time was that you had no idea what the fuck was going on in your home planet.

Politics? Hal knew at the very least that it wasn’t George Bush in office. 

Everything else? Yeah, he honestly didn’t have a damn clue. Time worked weirdly in outer space, and he could talk about other planets’ culture all day long but if you asked him to sing one of the currently charting songs on Earth? He wouldn’t know anything past Britney Spears.

Coming back was always jarring for those reasons, coming back to Earth, paying his rent, trying to resume life as normal until he was called back to do his job. There was always some old habit to fall back on.

But those habits were harder to fall into when your apartment was sold under your nose and now you really had no place to go.

He could always put a down payment on another apartment, he could always buy new belongings. Nothing was really worth value at his place anyways, maybe his couch? Maybe some pictures, but according to Carol she put them in a storage unit by Ferris Air. He could get them back at any time. 

“It just sucks,” he announced while on monitor duty with big Spooky, they’ve barely talked- or rather Hal hadn’t been talking and he didn’t think Bruce would start a conversation with him anytime soon. 

“Hn.” 

Ah yes, sweet permission to continue. 

“Like, you get back from stopping an intergalactic war, and your apartment’s sold, your childhood best friend has your shit, and now you gotta apartment hunt even though you know by the time you get the deposit in, you’ll be back in god knows where outer space.”

Hal rubbed his temples, leaning over the desktop and sighing, “And apartment hunting is not my forte..” Nothing was in budget, everything was too big. He was a simple man, he wanted simple things.

For a minute the only sound in the room was the buzzing monitors. Hal looked into their glow and decidedly ignored the expression on Batman’s face for a while longer until he heard a low grunt.

“If you want,” Bruce started, “Until you can get a deposit on an apartment, you can stay at the manor.” 

Hal looked at him, slowly, making sure he heard that right. 

“Beg pardon?” 

“Don’t make me say it again, Lantern. You’ll be busy most of the day, right?” 

“Yeah I mean- yeah,” Bruce could not be serious. Oh god, he was serious. His brows were knitted together in his serious look and everything. “Work.. and here, and world saving.” 

“Until you can get a down payment. There’s guest rooms, don’t give my kids trouble and by god do not influence them” 

“Can do, Spookaroo,” Hal mock saluted and went back to the screens. 

Bruce huffed next to him, probably regretting his decision. Hal couldn’t relate.

When monitor duty ended they zeta tubed back to the manor, or the batcave. It was interchangeable at that point.

Hal took the lantern suit off, relieved to be in a t-shirt and jeans for the first time since well- since he got back, honestly. Normal clothes were a different kind of drug. 

“I’ll probably fly and get my clothes.” 

“You have some here,” Bruce grumbled. 

“I do?” Since when did Hal have his clothes at the manor?

“Wisdom teeth incident with Stephanie.” 

“Oh right, I forgot about that,” he barely remembered it. Bruce had called him, out of all people to pick one of his not kids up from the dentist because he got wrapped up with some sort of case. Stephanie was hilarious, on or off pain meds. “Still don’t know why you called me about that but hey, your kids are hilarious.” 

“She refused to let you go home-” 

“ ‘Finally someone with a sense of real humor, ‘ was what she said. Come on, you can admit it, I’m hilarious.” 

“You’re annoying,” Bruce took the cowl off, rubbing the space between his eyes. 

“Awe, I’ll take that as a compliment.” 

“Same room as last time.” 

“I gotcha,” Hal winked and walked up the stairs, he’d leave Bruce to.. Whatever he was gonna do down there. Hal hadn’t showered in months and the way cleaning worked in space just didn’t feel the same. Sometimes you had to sit under a stream of scalding water and just be still for a second. 

“Ah, Mister Jordan,” Alfred greeted with a curt nod and soft smile. “It’s good to see you back on Earth.

Hal waved, and smiled. “Hey, it’s good to be back.”

Jesus, was he really at the manor often enough to be casual with Alfred? He couldn’t possibly be.. Then again when the wisdom teeth incident happened he was there for about a month. One kid got their teeth removed and suddenly two more followed and Hal was suddenly playing babysitter and nurse aid. 

He walked upstairs, humming to himself, he wouldn’t question it. It was better to act casual than to be worried all the time. If Bruce got pissed off he’d be kicked out, and Hal knew the man’s limits and how to test them more than anything else. 

Hal was whistling by the time he got to his guest room. It was a slightly smaller thing tucked into the east wing of the manor, equipped with an en suite bathroom and a view of the woods. It was a small piece of weird.. Nostalgia for him. Only being on Earth for weeks at a time, and spending some of those weeks helping Bruce shouldn’t have felt so right. Maybe it was the helping the kids part that made it feel that way. 

He shut the door behind him with a click and blinked when he saw his old clothes still folded on the bed. Ah- that was right, he had to go off planet suddenly, and was packing his stuff up when he was called to duty. 

How many months ago was that? Ah, who cared. It was shower time, thank you very much, and Hal had a whole bunch of nothing to think about. He picked up his sweatpants and underwear and grabbed a towel on the way.

Was it a sign that he was getting old that he looked forward to a shower so much? Maybe, but again, who cared. 

He turned the water on as hot as it would go and put everything down on the toilet seat. The shower was calling his name like sweet music.

The hot water was like heaven on his skin, and the soap? Even better. It was a majestic shower, the best shower a man could dream of. Hal felt like a man indulging in the world’s best sin. All of his stress melted away and he just stood under the steady stream for what felt like hours. He thought of a whole bunch of nothing, then did it again. 

When he got out, the bathroom was still covered in steam, but he dried off, got his pants on. It was great, and truly marvelous. 

Until it wasn’t. He took one step, one faithful, one very literal, one god awful step. 

It was like slow motion. 

He saw himself fall but didn’t quite realize he fell until he felt his head bounce back up and hit the tile again. 

His vision swam, and his ears rang. He stared up at the ceiling light for an eternity because holy shit what happened? 

Hal closed his eyes, his hand moving for the back of his head. Surely he just bonked it good, probably had a little goose egg. 

He felt something wet and hard and made the connection, he didn’t just bonk his head. He split it open. Jesus H. Christ. 

Alright, so he cracked his head open. What did people do when they cracked their heads open? Go to the hospital, yeah. Hospital, hospitals made sense.

He wasn’t panicking, for some reason he just got up and tried to put pressure on the wound, he didn’t think to grab a towel. A towel would’ve worked way better than his hand but everything felt fuzzy and weird. 

He stumbled out of the bathroom, hissing at the breeze of cold air. He could feel his blood trickling down his neck and he fought not to crawl out of his skin right then and there. 

A heavy knock sounded on the door, and then it opened a little too quickly. Hal processed the lights, the shadows, the colors. 

Oh it was Bruce, perfect. 

“Jordan-” 

“I think.. I think I need a hospital?” He didn’t know why he was confused, he just was. Part of him didn’t believe he had gotten hurt, the other part of him couldn’t blink without getting lightheaded. 

“No shit, come on.” 

Hal didn’t compute what was happening, there were hands on his shoulders, and he was being led down a hallway. He honestly let himself be pulled this way and that, he was pretty sure they went downstairs. 

No, he was in a car. When did he get in a car? 

“Am I like.. Dying?” He rolled his head over and looked at Bruce, whose jaw was clenched tightly while he drove, hazard lights on, the button on the dashboard was blinding. 

“No, but you’re bleeding heavily and probably have a decent concussion.”

“Oh.” Hal blinked a few times. “That does make way more sense now. I don’t even know.. What happened.” 

“That’s why we’re going to the hospital, keep the towel behind your head.” 

Hal blinked in confusion and brought his hand back. He didn’t touch the cut (thank god), but his hand was met with a fluffy towel and he moved it to where he felt like the cut was. 

Before he knew it they were parking in front of the emergency room and Bruce was helping him out of the car. Hal felt like he was gonna pass out and he held onto Bruce’s arm like a lifeline, normally he’d be embarrassed. 

But he felt like he was dying, actually dying. The lights made him nauseous, the alcohol smell in the waiting room didn’t make it better. 

A nurse ran up to them quickly, Hal didn’t hear a word she said, Bruce was mostly holding him up. 

“Think ‘m gonna pass out,” he had mumbled before being pushed down onto a hospital bed. A trashcan was placed between his knees. 

His vision stopped swimming the longer he sat and he was pretty sure people were talking but everything blended together. A man with a white coat came in and Hal guessed that was the doctor. He really didn’t feel like he was in his own body at that point. 

Gloved fingers were on his chin and suddenly he could hear things again. 

“This might make you nauseous, if you feel like you’re going to throw up, there’s a trash can right under you.” 

“Mmkay,” he hummed. 

 

A light was shined in his eyes and he felt sick but nothing happened. He answered the doctor’s questions, sometimes he’d really have to think about it. You see, the problem with never being on Earth was that you really didn’t know anything. He answered questions about himself and that seemed to be enough. 

“Well, Mister Jordan, you have a fine concussion to deal with. We’re gonna run a quick C.T scan to make sure nothing’s wrong up there, and then we’ll staple that cut and you’ll be home free. I assume he’s going home with you, Mr. Wayne.” 

“He doesn’t really have a choice in the matter.” 

“Aw,” Hal grinned, “Brucie, you care about me that much?” 

“Don’t push it.” 

The c.t scan was quick, the staples were hell. His thoughts mostly wandered when he was in the machine but laying on his stomach and knowing that a staple gun was being pushed into his skull? Freaked him out. He tried to stay calm, but when he felt the gun press against him and felt the pressure, and heard the clanging noise- he flinched. 

“Mr. Wayne can you hold his shoulders down?”

“Of course.”

Hal froze up, holding his breath while Bruce put pressure on him. His right shoulder was squeezed, oh- he was being comforted. 

Another staple went into his head and Bruce forced him not to flinch. Honestly, he shouldn’t have been that freaked out, but his heart was going a mile a second. 

He tried not to think about anything, he closed his eyes, and before he knew it, the deed was done. 

Bruce helped him sit up and he listened to the doctor talk to him, it was weird.. It was Hal’s head injury. 

“Just make sure he’s sleeping alright, he might sleep too long the first couple of days but let him be, wake him up for food and water when necessary. Keep the curtains in his room drawn and if you can keep it dim wherever he may be, that’ll be best. He might be moody or irritable, and he might behave oddly or his speech patterns won’t make sense.” 

“I’m sure I can manage him, doc, thank you for your help tonight,” Bruce shook the man’s hand and looked down at Hal. 

“How do you feel?” 

Hal looked up at him, blinked again and said, “Like a million bucks, you know. It’s not every day I fall out of the shower.”

Bruce huffed breathlessly, “C’mon, let’s get you back.” 

“You don’t have to act all nice, it’s just a little concussion,” but he accepted Bruce’s help. He was hauled back onto his feet and they were walking out of the hospital. 

“Only you, Hal Jordan, could put a two inch hole in your skull from a shower.” 

“I’m truly talented, I know,” Hal fluttered his lashes and regretted it immediately, “This fucking sucks.” 

Bruce nodded with a hum in the back of his throat, “Trust me, it’s going to suck even more tomorrow.” 

“Just kill me now, will you?” 

“Not gonna happen.” 

“Brucie.. I’m begging you.. Please.” 

“Nope, and you can stop begging now, it’s not a good color on you.” 

Hal groaned, “Whatever, there’s no winnin’ with you anyways..” 

“You’re right, there absolutely isn’t.”

Hal was pushed back down into the car, he was buckled in. His head tingled, and he closed his eyes. 

He heard the door shut, heard the driver’s side open and Bruce had said, 

“You’re staying at the manor until you need to get the staples removed. If something doesn’t feel right, you tell someone,” it came out as an order but Hal figured that was about as caring as Spooky got. Oh well, he’d take what he could get. 

Hal turned his head, and grinned, barely able to see Bruce in the glare of the hospital lights, 

“You know what doesn’t feel right?”

“Hnn?” 

He closed his eyes, and chuckled, mostly to himself. He didn’t care if Bruce heard him or not, he never really cared. That was how they worked! Hal would say something and Bruce would pretend to not care but his voice and body language said otherwise. Hal was the one who didn’t care, he’d been on the receiving end of plenty-a-threats and sometimes punches. Again, it was how they worked. Hal was positive that if he was anyone else, Bruce wouldn’t tolerate it nearly as much. 

If you could call what Bruce does tolerating, maybe that wasn’t the right word. He hummed and thought about it. Was there a word to describe how he and Bruce worked? Strained, maybe? No.. if they worked in a strained way, Hal wouldn’t have staples in the back of his head. 

“Jordan-” 

Oh right, they’re still in the car. Was Hal saying something? 

“Hnnmm?” Hal looked up, and jesus christ they were on the road. Every single headlight was like a scorching burn in his head. He closed his eyes, pressed the heel of his palms into them. 

“You said something didn’t feel right.” 

“Oh, I said that out loud?” 

“You did.” 

“Forgot abouddit..” He couldn’t remember what they were talking about anyways.


	2. Spring Breeze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hal wakes up and can't remember shit, Well some shit. But only some shitty shit he guesses that shitted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aha i am back again, my idiot hands cannot be stopped
> 
> same thing as last time. please follow me on tumblr @brunchyarts if u enjoy my content. i make quality memes, sometimes.

Hal spent the next few days in and out of sleep. Between a killer headache, pain meds, and god knew what else- he didn’t do anything but lay there. It was hard to stay awake and even harder to talk. For once in his life he didn’t quip about the fact that every time he woke up, Bruce was sitting at his bedside. One would call it cute, how he was worried, Hal knew it was something else. It was probably the excessive need to know everything at all times. 

Insufferable bastard.

He blinked awake, sweat beading against his brow. His head was pounding viciously and he shoved his pillow further into his face. 

“Jordan.” 

“Shhhut up,” he swats at the air, dropping his hand back down to the bed. 

“You’re finally fully conscious, how does it feel?” It sounded like Bruce was teasing him, how rude.

“Like shit,” Hal opened his eyes again, the room was near pitch black, the curtains drawn tightly together.

Oh right, he busted his head open. 

Uh.. how long ago was that?

His hand flew to the back of his head and he scratched over the staples. Great, so it wasn’t a nightmare, he really did fall in the bathroom and crack his skull open. How peachy. 

He pushed himself up on his elbows and Bruce’s arm went across his back, “Slow down.” 

 

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

“You have a concussion, if you move too quickly you’ll throw up or pass out again.” 

“Bruce?” Hal looked over at him, and Bruce looked like an exhausted piece of shit. 

 

Good.

“What, Hal?” 

“Don’t. Tell. Me,” he sat up quickly, and the room spun in his vision but he focused back on Bruce. “What to do. I know my body, I’ve had concussions before. You’re not some.. Medical professional- don’t give me that look.” 

“Technically-” 

“Nope! Conversation over, done, zip, zilch, it’s done,” Hal pressed his fingers against his temples. His heartbeat was like cacophony in his ears and he needed a second. He didn’t have the energy to argue. The words, give me a sec were on the tip of his tongue but all that came out was a weaker, “Second, give.”

Bruce seemed to understand, he leaned back in his chair and glared cold daggers at Hal. Hal knew, he could feel them. He could always feel Bruce’s weird, judgy looks, it’d become his talent. 

“When did I crack my head open?” 

“Three days ago. You’ve been in and out of consciousness but that seemed normal given your predicament.” 

Hal looked at him, and tilted his head. No words, but Bruce got the gist of it. 

“ You just got back from Space, your biological clock wasn’t in order, and you have a major concussion. It added up, and you woke up fine for meds and water. You normally sleep a lot when you get concussions.” 

“And how would you know that?” 

Silence. 

More silence. 

“Oh my god, you called someone about me. Haha! You, were worried,” he punctuates the word with a pointing finger, a laugh making his head hurt even more but he wouldn’t admit it. “You- who called you- who did you call?” 

Bruce leaned back, hands folded on top of one another. 

“No, seriously. I gotta know in case they told you somethin’ that wasn’t correct. I can give you anything you want to know about me and my loving relationship with head injuries.” 

“Don’t, I called Carol when you didn’t wake up for your first round of meds. 

Oh, wow. He wasn’t expecting that, he expected John- maybe Kyle. 

Hal stared at him. 

Bruce bristled, but continued, “She told me you sleep through most of your injuries and to only worry if you passed the twenty-four hour mark without waking, which was news. Sleeping that much is dangerous for regular people.” 

“Regular people are not me.” 

“Do you want to discuss the tree incident?” 

Hal laughed, “Absolutely not! No, god, she told you about that? Out of all the times I’ve had a concussion…”

“I’m amazed you don’t have a significant amount of brain damage.” 

He hummed, and shrugged. He stared at Bruce a little too long, and he considered quipping another joke about how amazing he was, a true freak of nature. 

Instead he said, “The ring takes most of the damage when things happen.” 

Hal wasn’t wearing his ring in the shower. 

They sat in another lapse of silence, he was sure Bruce connected the dots. It seemed like his detective brain didn’t shut off, ever. 

“What time is it?” Hal couldn’t see a clock in the room, and when he looked for the alarm clock he realized it was unplugged- right. No bright lights, which meant no ring because that would blind him. 

“About noon. Are you hungry?” 

“No,” he honestly wasn’t. The thought of food made his stomach churn, but by god he wanted fresh air. It was stuffy, and dark, and gross. There was only so much darkness Hal could take. “Outside,” and he was getting up, using the bedpost to haul himself up because he felt like a sack of bricks that got run over. 

“You haven’t eaten anything in three days.” 

“A wonderful diet trick, I read it in Vogue,” Hal managed, closing his eyes. He realized he was clothed again, a sweatshirt that wasn’t his and flannel pajama bottoms. 

Sunglasses were pressed into the palm of his hand and Bruce was looking at him all serious-like. For a second Hal considered that Bruce might have had mind reading powers and was trying to figure out what Hal was thinking. 

But Hal didn’t even know what Hal was thinking, so his luck was out on that one. 

“Oh right, light sensitivity,” it finally clicked in Hal’s head and he put the sunglasses on. He couldn’t see for shit but there was a strong arm steering him out of the bedroom and honestly? Hal stopped questioning it. Whatever, Bruce was gonna be a control freak about this no matter what. 

The halls of the manor seemed longer than they were before and the stairs were a nightmare. Hal’s body didn’t cooperate down most of the stairs and he had to keep one hand on the railing at all times. His depth perception was for shit when he had a concussion, apparently. 

“You can slow down, you know.” 

“Don’t motherbird me,” Hal glared, finally touching down on precious, sweet flat ground. 

“I’m not-”

“Oho on the contrary, I will confirm with one of your kids-” 

“Don’t you dare, Jordan.”

Hal smirked, and chuckled, “Fine, but only this time will I not dare. Where is your back door again?”

Bruce grunted, and pulled him along. Hal just had to follow, let his legs carry him. He was positive Bruce was mostly lifting him up, which was fine. Or not fine, he didn’t know how to feel about it yet. It was a weird, buzzy feeling that he couldn’t cope around, not really. 

So he ignored it, and when he was pushed out of the door and felt the sweetness of the spring breeze he let himself not think. 

He stood and just breathed, and it was the best feeling in the world. You see, in outer space, air can be stale. There really aren’t scents to the air you breathe, and if there is it normally smells some sort of rancid. 

But spring air was flowery, fragrant. It was moments like these that made Hal think: Geeze, maybe Earth isn’t so bad. Sweet spring flowers, dancing in the breeze. 

He didn’t realize Bruce had left until he was by his side and handing him a cup of tea, from the smell he could tell it was a chai blend of sorts. 

“Hm.. this doesn’t seem your style, Spooky,” Hal still took it carefully in his hands, he wasn’t willing to drop it and potentially shatter the delicate cup. 

“It’s not. Damian said that when he gets concussions, chai tea helped him think clearly again.”

“He’s a smart kid,” Hal nudged Bruce’s shoulder, “I wonder where he gets it from.” 

Bruce snorted, “Was that supposed to be a dig or a compliment?” 

“A dig,” Hal took a sip of the tea, humming around it. “Your son has more common sense than you’ll ever have.” 

“I find that doubtful, last week he was trimming the hedges with a katana.” Bruce pointed to a completely mutilated hedge in the distance. 

“It’s abstract work.” 

“Don’t egg him on.” 

 

“He’s an artist and you’re missing his art form,” Hal grinned and bumped Bruce’s shoulder. “Give Damian his due credit. It’s a masterpiece.” 

“I think your eggs are scrambled, Hal.”

“Fried, actually, but good point,” he looked down into his teacup and swished the dark liquid around. “But I have a question, and it’s serious so don’t be all: ‘he’s concussed, he probably doesn’t mean it.’ “

Bruce went stiff next to him and Hal made it a point to elbow him out of that stiffness as hard as he could. “Don’t Batman on me either.” 

 

“Hn.” 

“That’s what I thought anyways…” He stopped, “Dammit, I forgot what I was gonna say.” He wanted to cuss, throw a fit, but instead he sipped his tea and tried to enjoy the flavor. 

“You’ll probably remember later.” 

“I guess, but that’s besides the point. I’m almost positive it was important.. I just can’t remember like.. Anything I was thinking about.” 

“Head injuries do that.” 

“Shhh.”

Bruce laughed quietly, it was hollow, and mostly came from his chest but Hal made sure to mark that down, and mark it down loudly. 

“Today, March 31st-”

“It’s April 2nd..” 

Hal cleared his throat, “Today, April 2nd 2019 I claim is the National Holiday of the day that I, Hal Jordan got Bruce Wayne to laugh.” 

“It was a chuckle-” 

“Nope! Nope nope! It was a laugh, I got you to laugh. I’ve been trying to get you to laugh for what.. Five, six years? You grumpy bastard, but today- today I did it,” he poked Bruce in the chest, laugh tearing through him. The tea cup was taken out of his hand, and he held his sides while he laughed. 

“I mean come on, it’s perfect,” Hal closed his eyes so he could wipe the tears away, but he still giggled. “I got you to laugh, just admit it.” 

Bruce sighed, and made it as loud as possible, “You’re insufferable.”

“Oh shh, you love it, it’s hilarious. I made you laugh,” Hal put a hand on his chest and fell forward, and of course Bruce caught him. 

“Well, I think your meds and lack of food are finally catching up with you. C’mon, let's go back inside. 

“Ugh, pushy,” Hal was steered away again, firm hands on his shoulders that were quickly replaced with a guiding, comforting arm. “I still made you laugh.” 

“Don’t tell anyone-” 

“The world will know, Brucie,” Hal let his head fall against Bruce’s shoulder and felt the spring breeze behind him and smelt the comforting, floral air.


End file.
